2 March 2012: Happy Mardi Gras

Tomorrow Sydney will hitch up the frock, throw on the heels and jump head first into the Mardi Gras parade, the most public event of the month long Mardi Gras festival.  The parade is surely Sydney’s biggest, most outlandish spectacle-loved by most, tolerated by the rest and despised by an increasingly small minority.

The parade began on a Saturday night in June 1978.  First off it was a show of solidarity for protests then happening in New York City, with the added task as an awareness raising campaign against homophobia and for an upcoming gay conference.  This impromptu parade had been organised by Sydney’s Gay Solidarity Group (GSG).

Dancers and revellers in the clubs of Oxford Street were drawn by the sound of whoops and hollers coming from a bunch of dancing, parading marchers following a small truck down the centre of the road, with the Tom Robinson Band’s ‘Glad to be Gay’ blaring from small speakers.  By the time it got to Hyde Park, the truck had about 2000 people following behind.

The happy mood was not to last, as in Hyde Park the police were waiting.  They confiscated the public address system and the truck.  Not deterred, and seizing the moment, the leaders of the parade headed off again, this time down William Street towards the Cross, where an even bigger police contingent was gathered.  Scuffles brewed to a small riot and 53 violent arrests were made.  So began the first Mardi Gras.

The following court appearances highlighted a wider issue of civil rights and police heavy handedness.  Their attempts to stop people entering the court and later violent arrests at subsequent protests eventually lead to a change in the law.  The passing of the Public Assemblies Act 1979, put it back on police to prove a march or demo would be a public nuisance or danger.  This was a major breakthrough not only for the gay and lesbian community but the whole community and its right to demonstrate.  In 1984 this was followed by the decriminalisation of homosexuality amongst consenting adults as well.

The parade had another effect, this time more personal.  Many of the participants felt personally liberated, marching with their partners or by themselves, openly proclaiming their sexuality for the first time.  Sydney’s gay community was out of the closet and were not going back in.

Lets get moving!! The parade gets underway.

The 1979 parade was incident free and attracted about 3000 people.  In 1980 a post parade party was added and in 1981 it was moved to summer to take advantage of better weather.  Things began to get lot more fun.

However there was still a serious message to the event.  Civil rights, anti-homophobia and safety on the streets were real, everyday issues for the participants.  But the event was beginning to attract the Sydney scene.

Spread the word. There is still room for a message in all the glitter

By 1984, 50,000 spectators were lining Oxford Street to watch.  The enthusiasm for the event was also surreptitiously spreading into the community, challenging stereotypes and hang-ups.  By 1989 200,000 people were watching, by 1993 there were over half a million.  The event was huge.  The parade took about 2 hours to pass, international performers clamoured to be part of it and even the police were marching.  Serious issues still sat at the heart of the parade though, such as AIDS which decimating the community in the mid 1980s.

By the year 2000, the Mardi Gras had expanded beyond just the parade into one of Sydney’s major summer events, a month long celebration of arts festivals, carnival days and parties.  10,000 people were now participating in the parade itself.

This year sees the parade celebrate 34 years.  It has just about achieved mainstream status, albeit a slightly kinky mainstream.

Sydney is unique in world cities in its acceptance of the gay and lesbian (and transgender, and bi, and queer and…) community.  There are obviously still plenty of issues that need resolving and still many barriers to break down but it’s on its way.  The parade of 1978 played a major role in all this.

Happy Mardi Gras!!

5 June 2009: Have you ever been to see Kings Cross?

Kings Cross is on the edge of the city.  It’s on the edge physically, sited on the rise above Woolloomooloo valley and it is on the edge mentally (if a suburb can be so described), a place where just about anything can happen, you can run into anybody and where if you scratch the surface, history seeps out.

In terms of Europeans, it took a bit of time for them to get up there.  The first buildings did not appear until 1819 when a windmill was erected on the ridge at the Darlinghurst end.  The place was perfect for windmills, catching the harbour breeze and grinding colonial grain.  The mills were followed from 1828 by a series of grand mansions, built to house the colonial gentry.  It was Sydney’s first exclusive suburb, with the land granted by Governor Darling on the proviso that the houses cost more than £1000 (a lot of money in 1828). 

But all good things come to an end. 

An economic downturn (sound familiar) in 1840 meant many of the grand properties were subdivided into smaller lots.  Between 1850 and 1880 the large allotments were subdivided and built out with villas, terraces houses, town houses and workers houses.  But Kings Cross held out and remained middle and upper class throughout the 19^th century.

Before we go further, what of the name?  The area was originally called Darlinghurst Heights, then Darlinghurst, then Potts Point amongst other names.  From the 1850s or so, the top of William Street where it crossed Victoria Road and Darlinghurst Road became known as Queens Cross, after Queen Victoria.  When she died in 1901 the crossing was renamed Kings Cross, but it had been know as the Cross for some time anyway.

So the 20^th century is when the Cross as we know it now begins to emerge.  From the 1890s through to the 1920s it was a place best known for its artists, musicians and bohemians, attracted by its proximity to the city and cheap rents.  The Cross was home to the soon to be famous and infamous.  The poet Kenneth Slessor lived there, David Scott Mitchell of Mitchell Library fame lived there and later William Dobell lived there.  But in the 1920s and 1930s the gangsters also began to appear.  Razor gangs roamed the streets of Darlinghurst and soon enough street fights were par for the course in the Cross.  In 1929 two street battles in Eaton Avenue (the Battle of Blood Alley) and Kellet Street saw guns, razors and bricks and bottles used between rival gangs vying for control of the growing cocaine trade.

With World War II a whole new opportunity opened up for business.  Overseas servicemen poured into the area, attracted by bars and restaurants, which were in turn attracted by the soldiers.  A young entrepreneur called Abe Saffron opened Sydney’s first real nightclub, the Roosevelt Club in Orwell Street.  Soon enough bars and clubs were opening up all over and the place was set on its path.  Vietnam followed quick behind WWII and new types of clubs opened, strip joints and Les Girls, Sydney’s first quality drag show.

But then in 1975 a young activist, Juanita Nielsen fighting to save the old district, disappeared.  Believed murdered, her death changed the view of the place.  Now it was dangerous.

And so it goes ups and downs, swings and roundabouts.  The Cross remains a place of intrigues, crafty characters, dodgy deals, glittering lights, neon, sights that would make your eyes water. 

It’s Sydney in a small package.